小桥流水人家水旱盆景的立意常见有三种情形:一是根据诗词意境去选材、造型;二是借鉴绘画表现形式,寻找适合的材料,创作“立体的画”;三是根据既有材料的特点去构思命名。前两者均为先立意后选材、造型,可称“意在笔先”;后者则是“量体裁衣,因材立意”,或叫“意在笔后”。《小桥流水人家》是借用元代马致远《天净沙·秋思》中的一句为题,进行水旱盆景创作的例子,属于“意在笔先”,因意选材。作者以数株大小不一的瓜子黄杨,配上形色古朴的龟纹石,以及茅舍、小桥、樵夫的摆件,精心组合,塑造了“小桥、流水、人家”这一立体画面。这种利用古诗句进行水旱盆景的创作形式,有似中国宋代的命题画,如以唐人诗句“踏花归来马蹄香”、“野渡无人舟自横”、“万绿丛中一点红”、“深山藏庙寺”等等为题作画即是。《小桥流水人家》的创作,对水旱盆景的表现形式进行了新的尝试,拓展和延伸了水旱盆景的创作空间。宋代大文人苏轼认为“诗是无形画,画是有形 Bridge people water and drought bonsai conception common in three situations: First, according to the poetic mood to material, modeling; Second, drawing on the form of painting, looking for suitable materials, creating “three-dimensional painting”; third is based on the material Features to conceptualize. The first two are the first choice after the conception, modeling, can be described as “intended in the pen first”; the latter is “tailor-made, due to material conception”, or “intended after the pen.” “Bridge people” is to borrow the Yuan Dynasty Ma Zhiyuan “Tianjing Sha · autumn thinking” in the title, for drought and bonsai creation of examples, are “intended in the first”, because of the meaning of material selection. The author with several different sizes of melon seeds boxwood, coupled with the simple shape of the original stone serpentine, as well as cottage, bridge, woodcutter’s ornaments, carefully combined to create a “bridge, water, people” this three-dimensional screen. This use of ancient poetry of water and drought bonsai forms of creation, like the proposition of the Chinese Song Dynasty painting, such as the Tang poem “Tiguan return horseshoe incense”, “Wild no crossing”, “Wanlv Cong little red” , “Deep temple temple” and so on for the title painting that is. The creation of “bridges and water people” made a new attempt on the manifestation of water and drought bonsai, expanding and extending the creative space of water and drought bonsai. Su Shi, a great scholar in the Song Dynasty, believed that "poetry is an invisible painting, painting is tangible